Implementing RenderMan - Practice, Problems, and Enhancements

AbstractThe RenderMan interface has been proposed as a general interface to rendering systems, yetonly a few implementations of the interface exist. In this paper we describe the implementationof the RenderMan interface on a general rendering architecture that supports various renderingalgorithms. Specifically we discuss the implementation of the RenderMan Shading Language andits integration into our rendering architecture. Special attention is focused on the problems thatwe have encountered and how they can be solved. Additionally, we suggest extensions and en-hancements to the current interface definition, which would make RenderMan easier to implementand more flexible to use.